This question from many a mauritian buying a mobile phone drives us to reflect on a Brand’s relevance and its social influence.
When a national figure’s job position becomes open, it creates a competitive tension between the postulants because such an opportunity represents a lot of goodwill and prospect, not to mention the attractive salary package that comes with the position.
Cellplus lost its job as the national mobile service provider when it was decided that Orange was better placed to do it. Surely, when we look at how the Orange brand has positioned itself, we are tempted to believe it can do the job better than the Cellplus brand.
However, the national mobile service provider position should have logically been occupied by a Mauritian brand. Or maybe not…
The global trend is currently such that international mobile service brands are entering national markets with just their brand identity, philosophy and culture while using the networks and logistics of existing national providers.
A fresh example is how the Virgin Mobile brand is present in India by using Tata Teleservices’ network as its backbone. Isn’t that almost the same scenario here in Mauritius with Orange?
In Mauritius though, Orange did not face any other postulants to compete with for the national mobile service provider position. The Orange brand’s ownership on that position was taken for granted.
And this is where few questions arise…
Where was EMTEL?
Nobody probed into that question.
EMTEL did not seize that opportunity to position itself as the only MAURITIAN mobile service brand. When everyone was talking about the loss in national patrimony, no one turned to the historic operator to remind him that he too, was also part of the national patrimony with its pioneer status. In fact, everyone forgot or feinted to forget, the days when people would say: ‘Pret mwa to EMTEL…’
These were the days when the ‘EMTEL’ brand name was synonymous with ‘mobile phone’. It seemed like big brands such as Motorola or Nokia had disappeared for EMTEL’s good sake.
Maybe the pioneer status is not a selling point anymore?
Only the market can answer that question.
ORANGE did not waste time to grab the NATIONAL mobile service provider position. Once it was launched, its brand communication and positioning accentuated its socio-cultural integration in Mauritius. It decided to accompany Mauritians in their daily lives.
Could EMTEL, a purely Mauritian brand have assumed this position?
It did not postulate for it, so we don’t know.
Maybe it does not want to position itself as national patrimony.
By it’s website, The EMTEL brand is synonymous with technology, innovation and high quality. Therefore, we can deduct that the red-button brand’s positioning strategy turns around being a technology-centered provider that is driven by innovation and that thrives to provide the highest quality service to its customer base. That’s where we can guess it might not be interested to occupy the position of the national provider, as this requires an approach based on socio-cultural integration into the brand’s identity, culture, philosophy and positioning, i.e. The Brand needs to create, activate a culture and be a participant therein.
However, are technology, innovation and quality attributes actual strengths for a brand? It really depends on what the brand is selling.
If it is selling a product, like a mobile phone, then most probably they are good attributes – Mauritian Paint brands too can use these attributes as their brand strengths. But if the brand is selling a service, and most importantly, if a certain life-style is appended to that service, then it is important for that brand to create its own philosophy and culture. These should be relevant to the socio-cultural fabric of its targeted market or niche. This will help the Brand to differentiate itself from its competitors and will guarantee its competitive advantage. Above all, this is what will help into building long-term relationships with its customers.
This is where Branding is essential.
Some food for thought…
“Does the international trend, which has seen Orange stepping in Mauritius, mean that we are going to see more non-Mauritian brands takeover Mauritian brands?”
Just wanted to say HI. I found your blog a few days ago on Technorati and have been reading it over the past few days.
Just came across your blog while browsing. Just wanted to wish you good luck and keep it up. From a mauritian living abroad.
Emtel is provides more facilities (features) compelling to the youth culture and businesses. However, the youth culture prefers Orange because it’s the National brand. People from the old times still refer to mobile phones as “Emtel.” My guess is that Emtel prefers to be the ultimate telephony company subscribed by businesses, and the latter do get what they pay for.
There’s also a meme among the locals. “emtel pa gagne rezo” It’s pure FUD. The network works fine. I won’t mention the entire list of features which can be obtained from the web site.
Note: I’m a subscriber to Emtel and Orange. Emtel gives me a lot more. I’m NOT a fanboy though.
Which one do you use and prefer?
Interesting article.
Emtel should have been more aggressive in its publicity initiatives. It should have exploited its first player advantage to prevent MT-Orange from gaining such a large market share. Cellplus turning Orange was another opportunity for Emtel to re-position itself as the ‘Mauritian’ service provider, and get back all the lost patriotic customers. But they did nothing!
As I see it, Emtel is focusing on a niche market, i.e Private sector businesses, whereas Orange together with its Public sector customers (for obvious reasons) also has the majority of the mass market.
I foresee that in the mass market segment, the minority who are on Emtel will gradually move to Orange, because calling other people will be more expensive if they stay on Emtel. This is due to the fact that calling a different service provider is 3x more expensive, and given that more people are on Orange.